


Nature’s Circle

by Silvaxus



Series: Protectors of the Realm [5]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Anal Sex, Biting, Bloodplay, Bottom Gabriel, Double Penetration, Feelings, M/M, Multi, Oral Sex, Threesome - M/M/M, Top Lucifer (Supernatural), Top Sam Winchester, Topping from the Bottom, Wings, not many dialogs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-07-24 01:24:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20017972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvaxus/pseuds/Silvaxus
Summary: The Protectors were rising once again, but no one knows what they have become. Not once in the ancient history of the Earth had protectors climbed to such power.Many things were about to change, and though some would remain the same the one thing that was meant to happen since the Beginning had to end. For every circle will end sooner or later.And nothing is spared by this one universal rule.





	1. Rise

**Author's Note:**

> Well...here we are, finally. 
> 
> We've reached the final part of my Protector Series. Almost 1 1/2 years passed since I started to post the first part. A long time...But now we are about to reach the end. Welcome to the end times *bows* 
> 
> I wrote this part last December but I wasn't ready to let my Protectors go, yet, but everything will reach an end at some point. Six chapters until we'll meet the end. Enjoy the last journey of the Protectors of the Realm and their angels. 
> 
> Credits for the edits for my beloved Beta [CrowNoYami](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrowNoYami/pseuds/CrowNoYami)

After months without Sam and Dean present, Lucifer had gotten used to it. It still hurt that they weren’t with them at the bunker, but every angel living in their home had grown accustomed to it.  
  
Ramiel remained at the bunker most of the time because she still didn’t trust their father not to suddenly come back and ask for the Spark of the Garden. The little angel had taken over the library and threatened everyone who even dared thinking about destroying the order she had brought to the chaos. She went as far as to write a register of where to find what kind of information, sorted the books based on their themes and within the topics, and she put them in order by their publishing dates.  
  
Lucifer knew Sam would love it because his mate still loved to gain as much knowledge as possible. It wasn’t enough that Sam had almost limitless powers before he went into sleep, no, he wanted to know about everything as much as possible. The memory of Sam sitting in the library for hours with his head bent over the books made Lucifer smile, but it also made him sad. He missed his mate.  
  
While Ramiel had taken over the library and banished Castiel who tried to lay hands on her project, the seraph had found himself a new task as well. They accidentally found out, that everything within the barrier around the bunker was still sleeping but everything they brought from the outside into their little world, remained awake. Castiel took it as his duty to find neglected bee hives all over the country. Lucifer was sure that some of the colonies were from other continents too that Castiel brought back into their forest. He purchased flowers for planting them on a large clearing, but shortly after Castiel had started to plant the flowers, it showed that while he had the talent to take care of the bees, he had no ability for flora.  
  
By accident Lucifer took over the sparse field of flowers Castiel had planted and within a month, everything was in full bloom. Castiel’s bees found more pollen than they could harvest, and Lucifer found out that he liked working with his hands.  
  
The archangel started to collect flowers from all over the world and what started with a single clearing full of flowers, ended with most of the area around the bunker turned into fields of plants. When Lucifer was working with his buds, he was aware of his siblings watching him. They seemed to be surprised that he found himself such a mundane task, but it helped him to pass the time while he waited for Sam’s return.  
  
What surprised Lucifer the most was the fact that it took Gabriel the longest to find something for himself. The younger archangel was restless and agitated. Lucifer tried to help Gabriel and showed him to treat the delicate blossoms of an orchid he had found in a small rainforest, but Gabriel had sat in front of the little flower with its bright orange blossoms and just stared at it for hours. When Gabriel finally got up, he excused himself from Lucifer and vanished for a few days.  
  
Lucifer hadn’t been happy with Gabriel gone, but he could still feel his brothers roaming the Earth, and when no news appeared about sudden and mysterious cases of death, Lucifer waited for Gabriel to return to them.  
  
After Gabriel’s return, it took Lucifer a while to figure out what Gabriel was doing when he vanished for several hours a day or quietly sat over stacks of books in the library. Only when Lucifer walked by the library and heard Gabriel talk on the phone did he realized what Gabriel was doing. He was working with hunters; he was helping them and, in some cases, he assisted them in person. With his natural but sometimes threatening nature, the hunters accepted Gabriel’s work while others merely acknowledged it because they knew who he was. An archangel and trickster but furthermore, it was known the fact that he belonged to the Winchesters and no one wanted to end up on their bad side. Most people feared the wrath of the Winchesters more than they feared an archangel and to Lucifer, it was but hilarious.  
  
During one such case, Lucifer offered his help as well, and Gabriel sent him off to help put some spirits down to rest. Not a big deal for an archangel. When Lucifer arrived at his destination, the hunters almost died themselves when they noticed who came to their aid. As funny as it had been, after this, Gabriel deemed it to be too much for the hunters to have Lucifer helping them. It would fuck with their morals a laughing Gabriel had told him. Lucifer didn’t care because he hadn’t done it for the hunters but for Gabriel. 

Time passed by, and while everyone went to their tasks, and the hobbies they chose to do, all of them felt the absence of the Winchesters. It was like a permeable window during the winter, and the cold and the wind would make you freeze in your supposedly warm room.  
  


Sometimes, when they were at their worst, Gaia would visit them. The lively entity would help them get back on their track, and because of her likeness to the Winchesters, her presence helped; but only for a short time.  
  
Seven months had already passed, and they were into the eighth when Lucifer walked out to his flowers with a feeling in his grace that something was different. Looking around, Lucifer couldn’t spot anything that was off until he noticed something flying around him. At first, he thought it to be a few of Castiel’s bees, but Lucifer turned around to follow the movements with his eyes, he saw a butterfly. It was huge for such a delicate creature, and it was almost entirely black. The larger of the two sets of wings wore a beautiful pattern of white lines following the veins, and it looked like someone had taken a small paintbrush to add the white to the black as a huge contrast. The lower set of wings wore bright flecks of yellow with white half-moons following the edges. A thin dark red strip marked the head.  
  
The beautiful winged creature danced in the sunlight pouring down from between the trees and onto the flowers. Lucifer followed the butterfly with his eyes until his guest vanished between the trees. Lucifer stood there and looked after the butterfly he couldn’t see anymore. Weird, but maybe Castiel had decided to add something beautiful to his useful bees, and so Lucifer didn’t waste any more thoughts on the little butterfly. Walking between the flowers, Lucifer stopped again when he spotted another butterfly flying up from the flowers. This one was smaller with black lines on a white background with a brush of deepest red on the highest curve of its wings and the markings in the middle of its wings looked like numbers.  
  
The little creature danced through the sky, and when Lucifer stretched his arm out, the butterfly sat down on Lucifer’s arm wearing Sam’s mark with slowly flapping wings.  
  
Suddenly, the butterfly was in the air again as if something had scared him and a myriad of various butterflies rose from the flowers around Lucifer. Surprised, Lucifer didn’t move while the little creatures danced around him. He was surrounded by a wall of delicate wings colored in black, red, white, blue, orange, yellow, purple, green and other colors.  
  
As fast as the butterflies had appeared, they were gone again.  
  
With no idea what he should think of the new development, Lucifer turned around to go back to the bunker and question Castiel about his newest purchase to their forest when the next thing happened. A cardinal appeared in front of Lucifer. The bird with the red feathered body and black face hovered in front of Lucifer, shifting from side to side until he vanished with fast beating wings… and then Lucifer could hear something.  
  
Birds, voices of birds rose from the trees around him. It was like a concert that had suddenly started, but the musicians couldn’t decide who should begin their symphony and so they all started at once. Form the loud singing voices of the smallest of birds, to the trademark sound of an owl, to the screeching of a hawk, Lucifer heard all of them, and when he looked up, he could see them fly between the trees and their crowns.  
  
As suddenly as the birds had appeared with their songs, just as unexpectedly they fell silent again, but the silence didn’t fall over the forest. There was humming in the air, quiet at first before he turned louder and Lucifer saw insects flying through the forest he hadn’t seen on months. The song of the birds appeared again but not as the mess he heard moments ago but, in a way, someone would expect to hear in a forest. Different noises yet scattered among the trees. The soft murmur of the small stream turned into soft background music that was broken by the splashing water.  
  
Turning around, Lucifer met the dark eyes of a stag standing with its forelegs in the water. The animal stood tall and with its head raised high in front of Lucifer. Its fur was dark, and it wore huge antlers like a crown as it observed Lucifer. In the distance, the song of a wolf rose into the air… and Lucifer started to run.  
  
The archangel didn’t even waste a thought to using his wings to be faster. He ran through the reawakening forest; the forest had returned like it hadn’t been sleeping over the last seven months.  
  
The stag followed Lucifer on his run back to the bunker, and more wolves began to sing. Lucifer ran even fast while noticing more and more things coming back to life around him.  
  
When he reached the bunker, Lucifer ripped their front door out of his hinges, jumped the stairs down without touching one step, and burst them into the library. It seemed that he was meant to find all his siblings gathered in one place as Lucifer thundered into the door.  
  
He could see his siblings look at him with alarm over their faces and it dawned him that he had to look on his face that worried him because… what could make an archangel run like this? Searing for Gabriel’s eyes, Lucifer noticed the flowers on Gabriel’s skin peeking out from under his shirt with rolled up sleeves. Looking down at his arm, Lucifer saw the same thing on his skin. The flowers that had their blossoms closed since the day Sam had gone to sleep had reopened their blooms, and their colours seemed to be glowing on his skin.  
  
When he saw this, a deep sense of peace fell over Lucifer. There was the only thing that could cause such a reaction, and as much as he wanted this day to come, he didn’t know what do to now.  
  
“Lucifer?”  
  
Looking up, Lucifer smiled and held his arm up; suddenly, he knew what to do.  
  
“The Protectors are rising.”


	2. Homecoming

Three sets of eyes first stared at Lucifer, then his stretched-out arm only to wander slowly to Gabriel’s arm carrying Sam’s mark. The flowers on Gabriel’s arm were just like Lucifer’s, glowing and in full bloom.   
  
No one spoke. They only looked at each other, unable to believe if this was true or something they dreamed about for months.   
  
It was Ramiel who was the first one to jump off her chair. The chair fell with a loud thud, and the little angel ran from the room. The three brothers looked at each other. As much as they wanted their mates back, they had no idea what happened to Sam and Dean during their sleep and what kind of changes had passed. Not even Gaia was able to tell them what they had to be expecting only that when the Protectors rise again, she would go to sleep until this circle reached its end.   
  
Castiel got up and followed Ramiel which left Lucifer and Gabriel behind. The two archangels looked at each other. As much as they loved each other, over the last months, they had learned that they needed Sam. Sam was the one who held them both in balance. He would make Gabriel calm down and shake Lucifer out of his stupor when his memories of his time in the Cage returned with a vengeance.   
  
Gabriel got up, crossed the distance to his brother, and pulled Lucifer into a tight hug while he hid his face against Lucifer’s chest. Without needing words, Lucifer held his brother and brushed his grace against Gabriel’s. Whatever was going to happen when Sam and Dean returned home, they would find a way to deal with it.   
  
They separated again and followed Ramiel and Castiel outside. Their arms wearing Sam’s mark brushing against each other with every step they made they felt something return between them, something that had been missing over the last months. They could feel Sam waking up and reaching out to them.   
  
…  
  
Once outside, the first thing Lucifer heard was the wind playing through the treetops, and after months of near silence, even with Castiel’s bees humming through the forest, it sounded like a carillon to Lucifer to hear the wind again. The wind dancing between the trees followed the pleasant sound of Ramiel’s laughter.   
  
The little angel was down on the ground with her wings stretched out. Lucifer had seen the little angels wings many times since she spends most of her time at the bunker, but he couldn’t remember seeing at her wings shimmer in such brilliant colors. The upper curve of her wings looked like a metallic shade of aquamarine that turned into a sprawling tinge of fresh grass. At the lower curve of her wings, the aquamarine turned into a glowing yellow like a child would choose to use to draw the sun. Close to her back, Ramiel’s feathers were soft pink before they turned aquamarine. Compared to the times Lucifer had already seen Ramiel’s wings, it looked like she got an entirely new set of feathers. Small animals jumped and danced around Ramiel, and a fearless fox tried to catch one of her long primary feathers while yipping.   
  
Even Castiel had his wings out, and different hues of colors danced over his black feathers like oil on water. Shades of blue, violet, green and gold turned Castiel’s dark wings into a kaleidoscope of colors. He was watching Ramiel play with the animals around her while a swarm of butterflies surrounded him.   
  
Next, to Lucifer, Gabriel stretched his wings. Gabriel’s wings looked like a goldsmith had taken a single piece plate of gold to create each feather by hand. Each feather gleamed and glowed made the sun look dull next to them. Each filament of his golden feathers in the soft wind made Gabriel’s wings look like endless golden waves.   
  
Lucifer hesitated for a second before he unfolded his wings, but he didn’t dare to look at them. He knew what they looked like before and after his fall and he knew what they looked like since Sam had pulled him out of the Cage and healed the injuries on his feathers caused by hellfire.   
  
Stretching his wings, Lucifer didn’t take his eyes of a still laughing Ramiel, but the second he spread his wings to their greatest width only to snap them back against his back, Ramiel stopped and stared at him. The second Ramiel stopped in her playing, Castiel followed her gaze and looked at Lucifer the same way Ramiel did.   
  


Still not looking at his wings, Lucifer felt a touch on his feathers which felt warmer than the sun itself.   
  
Looking at a grinning Gabriel, Lucifer tried to ignore the mix of colors he could see from the corner of his eyes. “It’s okay, brother. Take your time. I’ll take the kids while you have your moment. We will start searching where they are about to rise since we can’t know where they will dig themselves out. I’ll give you a call should we find them.”  
  
Gabriel nodded at Ramiel, and Castiel and the three of them took off with beating wings, and the butterflies are surrounding Castiel danced in the wind caused by the gust from his take-off.  
  
Now alone, Lucifer stretched his wings out again but looked straight ahead at the trees in front of him. The air was warm around him, and the forest was almost too loud after months of silence. The fox which had tried to catch Ramiel’s feathers came closer to Lucifer like he was trying to find a mouse.   
  
Surprised, Lucifer lifted his left wing when the fix pounced forward, caught one of his primary feathers only to rip it out and ran away with it faster than Lucifer could lift his wing. With his prey firmly between his teeth, the fox ran away and was gone before Lucifer could shake off his surprise at the bold move of the little predator, but the act of lifting his wing forced Lucifer to look at his feathers.   
  
The horizontal scar caused by the hellfire still parted his wings, but his colors had changed completely. Stretching his wing some more, Lucifer saw that his feathers were now of a gleaming black where they grew out of his back, and the black feathers shone in the same colors as Castiel’s wings. The black turned into aquamarine, but it was a shade darker than Ramiel’s. Metallic gold followed the blue before the last two rows of feathers, the longest flight and primary feathers turned into a pristine and blinding white. Looking to his right wing, Lucifer saw the same colors on his other wing while even here the scar with its uneven edges parted his wing.   
  
The scar broke the clear line of colors like a deep red gorge as if someone had thrust a blade into Lucifer’s wings and dragged the edge slowly along his feathers. He was still wearing his colors but his wings had taken on the shades of his siblings. Never had Lucifer had heard about an angel changing its colors but here he stood, in the waking forest waiting for the return of the Protectors.   
  
Lucifer spread his new wings and took off; the sound of fading bells followed him and fell silent when he passed the barrier. Gaia had said her goodbye before she went to sleep as her Protectors were about to rise.   
  
Angling his wings, Lucifer turned into the wind and headed up north. Gabriel and Castiel were checking up the southern hemisphere, and Ramiel was already over Europe.   
  
Under him, Lucifer could see that not only their forest was responding to the rise of the Protectors but the whole planet was waking. The green of the landscape under him looked fresh and young while water, rivers, lakes, the ocean at the horizon, looked too blue to be real. Birds danced in the skies; every creature living in the water seemed to try and reach for the atmosphere while the land-dwelling animals ran and raised their voices to the atmosphere. The Earth what was about to change and so did every living being. Even humans stopped what they were doing and stared at the sky.   
  
A light flashed over the sky, and even with the sun burning bright and robust over him, Lucifer could see the Northern Lights dance in colors of red, blue and green over him like it was the deepest night. The second the Northern Lights appeared, something happened. It felt like the world and time itself had stopped its breathing and was now waiting for something.   
  
Should ever somebody ask Lucifer what happened next, he would describe it as sound when a tree breaks apart under the force of a storm, but much louder. The crack of breaking branches and splitting wood was almost deafening, and Lucifer collapsed his wings to land because he had an idea of what was causing this sound. The Protectors were freeing themselves and in doing so; they had to rip the oak enclosing the Cage apart. It was something Gaia had told them two months after the Protectors went to sleep. The tree hadn’t stopped growing and had engulfed the Cage.   
  
A loud noise followed and Lucifer could only think of as a branch falling and hitting the ground, it made the field under him shake a bit. Should they rip the tree apart, it would cause an earthquake that would hit the full planet and they would be unable to do anything to stop it.   
  
The Earth stopped shaking, but the sound of rustling leaves, splitting wood and branches crashing down didn’t stop.   
  
Lucifer hopes that the others were safe as the sound of falling leaves became louder, and Lucifer remembered the size of the leaves growing off the branches of the oak Sam had planted in the Heart of Hell. They could take an angel out of the sky immediately, and Lucifer was sure that the tree had grown out of Hell as the mountain series he could see in the distance hadn’t been there a year ago and it was shaking profoundly, and he could see branches and leaves falling off.   
  
A loud crackling followed, and Lucifer witnessed how the oak in the distance broke apart. The trunk split apart from down below up to its crown. After the tree had fallen apart, Lucifer watched it slowly fall to the ground, and the Earth shook under him, and thunder followed the fall of the oak.   
  
Something rose from beneath the fallen tree, but Lucifer couldn’t tell what it was despite knowing who it was. The wind hit Lucifer and gripped him tight by his wings. Something was hiding beneath the wind, and it whispered Lucifer’s name while the wind surrounded Lucifer like a blanket and caressed his wings. _“Lucifer…”_  
  
The wind was strong, powerful, and the voice whispered his name again full of happiness and delight, and then it dawned Lucifer who he was hearing… _Sam_ , Sam was the wind around him. After realizing that there was no harm hiding behind the mighty wind, Lucifer watched the oak collapse in the distance, before allowed the wind allowed Sam to carry him away.   
  
The wind carried him all over the planet, and while Lucifer could see and feel everything around him, it felt like he had no vessel containing his grace. Lucifer opened himself to the feeling and allowed Sam to hold him in a way they’ve never done before. Lucifer was still an archangel, a celestial being created out of primordial energy, and even when Sam was his vessel, Lucifer had protected Sam against the destructive force that was Lucifer’s very core.   
  
Something touched Lucifer’s awareness, and when he focused on it with some difficulties, he noticed that it had been Gabriel trying to reach out of him only to be carried away by the wind that was their mate. Sometime later, Lucifer lost his sense of time. Another consciousness touched his grace and Lucifer needed a moment that could have been hours or days, to realize that it had been Castiel who was being carried away by a different breeze that still seemed to unwind with the wind moving Lucifer.   
  
Between the winds, a much smaller and colorful essence seemed to be jumping and rolling around in the airstreams carrying it. When Lucifer has felt another touch on his grace, childlike laughter filled his senses. Ramiel. Both Sam and Dean were bringing the little angel, and they allowed her to be something she was never allowed to be; free to play, free to fly, free to laugh. The laughter that followed Ramiel’s child-like amusement was more profound, fuller in its sound, and it had a sense to it that reminded Lucifer of his amusement when he watched the little angel. The entertainment and pride of an older sibling attending over the younger one.   
  
When Lucifer’s consciousness returned to his vessel, he became aware that he was back at the forest surrounding their home and that he was lying on a soft bed made of moss.   
  
Opening his eyes and looking up, Lucifer saw Sam in front of him, which was when he noticed that he was lying in the middle of Sam’s clearing. His wings were still out and covered Sam’s legs as well as Gabriel’s wings. His brother lay nestled against Sam’s side and was deeply asleep.  
  
Lucifer met Sam’s eyes, and to him, Sam looked all the same. The same long hair, the same dark brown and big antlers, the same warm smiled that caused his dimples to appear. The only thing new was his eyes. While their colors were still the same, Sam now had his brother’s wolf-like eyes.   
  
Sam bent down and pressed a kiss, small but warm, to Lucifer’s lips.   
  
“Rest, my angel, I’m sorry you had to wait so long for my return…”   
  
Lucifer wanted to answer that it didn’t matter. He had already waited for Sam for so long, that seven months was no time to him, but Lucifer felt himself being carried away by a soft breeze.


	3. As it should be

“Weird, isn’t it, Sammy?” Blinking, Sam turned around to look at his brother. They had decided to take the Impala out for a trip to meet their mates later for a small picnic wherever the Winchesters stopped. Sam had been looking out of the window, deep in thought while he watched the landscape pass by. “What’s weird, Dean?” Dean pointed to something in front of them. He had parked at the end of a parking lot, with no other cars around them to protect his precious baby, but their position gave them a beautiful view over the lake.   
  
“We are, Sam. Going out for a picnic with angels because there is nothing left for us to hunt and whatever comes up, it’s gone before it can even start causing havoc. We should have been dead long ago, but here we are… planning a picnic with angels.”   
  
Sam laughed at the wonder he heard in his brother’s voice and opened his door to leave the car. It was true. They should be dead, but they had beaten everything and everyone who dared to go against them; and now, decades after they had risen from their sleep, there was no one left who would even attempt going against them.  
  
Sam watched his brother leave the car and answered his brother’s grin with one of his own. After they had awoken from their slumber, Sam had risen with his brother’s wolf-like eyes while Dean had gained Sam’s antlers. Dean hadn’t been pleased about it. Dean had stood in front of the mirror, trying to will them away only to make them grow bigger. Sam had laughed for two reasons; one, Dean’s annoyed face, and second, Dean never got his antlers to become as big as Sam’s.   
  
Even now, outside, both wore their antlers, but Dean never really managed to get a grip on them while Sam could control their growth. He made sure that his antlers were always bigger than Dean’s.   
  
Dean grabbed the big basket from the trunk while Sam looked around. The lake was large, and the water sparkled in the sunlight. The forest on the other side of the pond was green, and Sam could smell autumn already in the wind crossing the stream and carrying the scents to him. Still, the trees wore their green leaves like a beautiful summer dress.   
  
He felt a nudge against his shoulder from Dean, and together they walked down to the waterside and followed the small track. They felt no need to hurry. When time isn’t relevant to you anymore, you learn to enjoy the moment and stop worrying about the next.   
  
People they met on the track smiled at them, and looked at them in awe, while children tried to catch their horned shadows.   
  
In the beginning, both felt weird about it that people were now aware of them; not only of them, but of their angels too. It started after they woke up from their slumber. It had changed the balance of the world, and now everyone was able to understand see them, realize who they were. People were even aware of the presence of their angels, and while neither Gabriel nor Castiel had problems with it, it was a massive obstacle to Lucifer.   
  
The archangel wasn’t used to people looking at him with awe, with love, with happiness. Since shortly after the making of humanity, he had always been the Devil, the epitome of evil, the Master of Lies, but now, now humanity looked at him like the archangel he used to be. The Lightbringer, the Angel of Music, God’s most beloved son and the most beautiful angel in Heaven.   
  
It wasn’t that people could see the angels actual forms, or even their wings, it was more like a sense had woken in humanity that allowed them to see both the Protector and their angels.   
  
They walked for some time before they reached a spot they both declared perfect for their picnic.   
  
They found a small meadow and on a little high stood a tall and old looking oak. Its broad branches and dark green leaves moved slowly in the soft breeze coming from the lake.   
  
Together, Sam and Dean prepared everything under the branches of the oak. They spread out their blanket, colored in red and white plaid, placed the sack they made on the sheet, and Dean handed Sam a cold bottle of beer which he took from his brother’s hand.   
  
When everything was set and prepared, both stretched out on the blanket, cold beer in hand and looked down at the lake at the foot of the hill. The branches of the oak over their heads cast a show of lights and shadows over them and their blanket.   
  


Their place wasn’t silent, as they were on display for everyone walking down the track to see them, but to them, the moment was almost perfect. They had some time to enjoy the beauty of the day and while they would call for their angels soon, Sam and used to the moment for just for the two of them.   
  
“Sometimes, like today, it feels so strange to have all of this.” Sam looked at brother before he nodded and took a sip from his beer. “True. After everything, we have seen… Ghosts, demons, shapeshifters, angels… and we’re still here, Dean.” Next, to him, Dean chuckled and lifted his beer in Sam’s direction. “To still being here.” Sam laughed and clinked his bottle against Dean’s. “To still being here.”   
  
Both took a sip from their beer and watched a boy play with his dog down at the track.   
  
“You know Dean, sometimes it feels like the old days. Just you, me, the Impala and the road ahead of us. And then we get out to look for a place for a picnic. Sometimes I try to imagine Dad’s face. He would have an aneurysm.” Dean snorted and rolled with his eyes. “Hell yeah, even dead he would have an aneurysm for several reasons if he could see us. Even after all this time, I’m still not one to go back and meet with Mom and Dad again. Bobby was never a problem, not even when I woke up with the radio station on my head.”  
  
Dean snapped against his antlers with his fingers, and Sam only lifted his head to grin at his brother who threw his empty bottle at Sam. “Stop showing off. I know you’re proud of your radio station… poser.” Grinning, Sam caught the bottle and threw it right back at Dean while a soft breeze made the water of the lake ripple.   
  
It was another thing that had changed after they woke up from their slumber; the Earth reacted to them. They were so entwined with their realm now that they could influence their domain to their wishes.   
  
They protected humanity against the elements, animals, against humanity and helped the world in general, to deal with the constant changes. While humanity could now recognize the Protectors and their angels, humans still were… human. They still made deals with demons, hunted animals, fought in wars, were cruel to each other… the way humans always walked the Earth. It wasn’t Sam’s or Dean’s job to lead humanity on a new path, only to protect their realm, and sometimes it meant to protecting the Earth against humanity. It was a fragile balance they had to uphold, a dangerous path to walk for both sides, but they were taught as young boys about the things lurking in the dark and learned to co-exist as hunters as opposed to those who never learned about the dark.   
  
This was something that hadn’t changed. There were still hunters out there, hunting things in the dark of the night, but their job had gotten much more accessible. Sam and Gabriel had established a worldwide network of hunters, researchers and supernatural beings not interested in eating or hunting humans. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked and sometimes when the greater demons tried something big, either the Protectors or their angels would head out and deal with it.   
  
On the other side, the angels were slowly returning to Heaven.   
  
Not even a handful had returned to Heaven after they had lasted a full human lifespan, or longer than human lifetime on Earth in a way that granted them their ticket back to Heaven. Not every former angel was issued their ticket. Most went back to the endless nimbus of death and rebirth while very few got a ticket downstairs. Thanks to an excellent deal with the King of Hell, they were informed immediately the second the soul of a former angel appeared in Hell.   
  
Even when their choices had granted them a ticket downstairs, the remains of their grace were still hiding and sleeping in their souls, and no one wanted to deal with demons based on corrupted souls and grace. They were sent back to the nimbus by Lucifer and had to wait for their turn to be reborn again. Reborn with a new chance to go back to Heaven; but this time, they didn’t know what would be waiting for them. They would gain their way back home purely from their kind hearts and intentions. Not an easy way, and even harder for the former angels, but slowly, the former angels made their way back home.   
  
When the first angel appeared back in Heaven, an exhilarated Joshua appeared with fluffed feathers in the bunker, speaking in half-sentences and pointed upstairs. Not really understanding what was going on, it had been Castiel who flew overhead while Joshua was still trying to explain himself.   
  
Castiel was gone for a few minutes before he returned to the bunker with a smile on his regularly stoic face. “The angels are coming back home,” he had said, and a shocked Ramiel had vanished on the spot the greet the returned sibling.   
  
Suddenly, a dog almost crashed down on their picnic blanket, and only thanks to Sam’s fast reflexes did he managed to catch the sizable furball before he could have bulldozered over their snacks.   
  
Laughing, Sam put the struggling Golden Retriever back on his paws, and the dog turned around, dropped his frisbee and barked once at Sam. Picking up the frisbee, Sam held it up for the dog to see. The dog jumped up and cried in excitement before he threw it down the hill. Like a flash, the dog raced behind his flying toy and Sam cringed when he saw that he used too much force when throwing the frisbee. The toy landed in the lake and without stopping, the dog jumped into the lake and swam out to get his toy back.  
  
Sam heard the owner call his dog back just like Sam could see the owner looking up the hill. He almost expected to be yelled at, but the second the man spotted him, he stared and then his dog was back by his side and shook himself dry. Water droplets flew everywhere, and Sam could hear the man curse for not paying attention, and then cursed the dog for shaking right next to him.   
  
Feeling a bit embarrassed, Sam sat back down on the blanket while Dean was still laughing. “Dude, what was your plan? Make that poor dog swim to the other side of the lake? He’s not one of the hellhounds who love you so much.” Sam flipped his brother the bird and focused his thoughts on the bond he shared with Gabriel and Lucifer. Time to call on his angels and start with the picnic. 


	4. Like it was meant to be

Walking through the new Garden, and seeing it returned to its greatness, filled Sam with joy. Most of the angels had found their way back to Heaven, and with every returning angel, the Garden had started to grow again. Its essence was still profoundly anchored to Ramiel’s grace, and the little Angel of Hope would always guard the last Spark of the first Garden, but this Garden, the new one, had grown because of the angels coming back to Heaven.  
  
The returning angels had earned their places -their ranks- back, and so the Garden returned. Slowly. With every returning angel, the Garden grew, and its Watcher was once again roaming between the fens, the trees, the flowers, in between everything that had returned to the Garden. Joshua had explained to Sam, that while this wasn’t like the first Garden, it still was his duty to watch over it, to guard it. Should ever a thing like the sickness return, Joshua would inform the Protectors. Something like that should never happen again.  
  
Sam was standing in the corner of the Garden that was still bare of any life. Only the withered plants from before the fall filled this last lifeless corner, but Sam felt no presence of the sickness. He was sure that this visible spot of the illness would vanish when the last angel found its way back home.  
  
Hearing soft whispering of voices behind him, Sam looked over his shoulders. He spotted two angels hiding behind a bush of rhododendron. Its flowers were pale yellow, and the angels looked at Sam from between the bush’s dark green leaves. Sam waved at the angels, and could hear their surprised gasped before they vanished between the green leaves.  
  
When the angels returned to Heaven, it depended on the way they took to come back how much they remembered from their old lives. Those who had recently returned only remembered the Fall itself but nothing of what happened before or what had caused it. They returned to Heaven distressed, unable to understand where they were or what happened. The angels who still had to return to Heaven would likely know nothing about their time in Heaven before the Fall, and while Sam didn’t know if this was a good thing or not, he was sure that every angel would get to learn about their past.  
  
To everyone’s surprise, it was Castiel who took upon the role of telling the angels their history. Sam had been there when the seraph told his returning siblings their history. Still, he wasn’t surprised when he heard Castiel tell them their tale without any flowers and he left nothing out. He told of the time before God created humanity, of the Fall of the Lightbringer, Heaven’s loss of their beloved Messenger, the Apocalypse forced by Heaven and the two archangels still ruling Heaven because of what God told them at the beginning. He told of the returning angels about two hunters beating Heaven and the angels in their games and how even Hell wasn’t deep enough to hold them back.  


Sam had been embarrassed listening to this, but he had to give Castiel some credit for the way he told his story; the story of Heaven, again and again to every returning angel. He spared them nothing, stated for them never to repeat the mistakes that got them kicked out while he taught them of free will. An amused Lucifer had sat with Sam once to listen to Castiel tell their tale. The little angels were seated around them looking at the archangel with a mix of great respect, awe, and a spark of fear. “A clever idea to teach them like this. Like this, they will grow into their own will and should our dearest Father decide to return sometime in the future; He will face an army of stubborn, thick-headed angels ready to tell Him to piss off. He won’t know what hit Him.” Lucifer’s melodic laughter pulled the little angels in, and Castiel scolded Lucifer until both Sam and Lucifer vanished from his lesson.  
  
While the archangels were widely respected in Heaven, they made it clear that they wanted nothing to do with leading or ruling it. When Ramiel or Joshua asked them for help, they would aid their siblings as it was requested, but they would leave once they were done. They sat with Castiel through his lessons, to make it clear that archangels were an entirely different level of existence than angels or seraphs, but otherwise, Lucifer and Gabriel remained on Earth.  


“It’s not our home anymore, Sammy,” Gabriel had said while he was making pancakes as Sam had asked why they didn’t want to return. “We are part of their history, and while we need to be part of their future too, they have to write their future or Heaven will start to repeat its mistakes. Let them grow, let them listen to Cassie’s tales, but in the end, neither of us belong there anymore. Once every angel has heard Castiel’s story, even he won’t return to Heaven as often. Our home is here now.”  
  
When Sam asked Lucifer the same question, Lucifer used different words, but his answer was the same. “To them, we are relics of a past; most of them barely remember, or they can’t remember it at all. It’s good if they recall that we are still out there because they can’t ever forget that there are still things outside of Heaven stronger than them. I’d rather burn down the Garden myself than let them make the same mistakes repeatedly. We still have the Spark. Should they show themselves as too much like the first generation, they will fall again. Maybe the next generation will come back with a brain for starters.”  
  
Sam loved the way the Garden replenished itself. It was a beautiful place, and even while Joshua told him that nothing could match the beauty of the first Garden, this one was stunning in its own way. Wilder and more chaotic; just like the returning angels.  
  
Smiling to himself as he heard the angels watching him whisper, Sam closed his eyes and concentrated on the pathways that connected Heaven and Earth to travel back home. These pathways came to be when the Garden started to grow again, and they acted as a Fastlane for Sam and Dean to go between Earth and Heaven without the help of their angels.  
  
He reappeared outside the barrier of their forest.  
  
It was winter, and everything was covered under snow and frost. The snow was falling softly, and everything around Sam was silent except for the sound of the slowly descending snow. Said snow crunched under his bare feet, even after all this time, Sam didn’t go back to get fully dressed every morning, but the snow didn’t melt when it hit his skin. He, just like Lucifer, ran colder than any other being and he loved the cold and the winter.   
  
The second Sam passed the protective barrier; he walked into the summer. The area around the bunker was in a constant state of summer. The plants and trees lived off the powers of the Protectors residing in their middle, and so they stopped changing the colour of their leaves just like they never lost their leaves for the winter. An eternal summer ruled around the bunker while other parts of the territory still followed their natural seasons, most of the time at least.  
  
Now, in the warmth of the eternal summer, the snow on Sam’s skin and his hair started to melt, and droplets of water ran down his skin.  
  
Not caring for the water running down his neck, Sam reached out with his powers to find his angels. He knew that Dean and Cas were gone, something about a car show but Sam hadn’t been listening when his brother talked about it. He had no idea what Gabriel and Lucifer would be up to.  
  
Nothing by the way it felt to him. Sam’s powers touched their graces, and he could feel them responding to him immediately. They were in their bedroom.  
  
Sam walked through the forest. He was in no hurry as he spent the majority of the day taking care of the Garden. He wasn’t even sure if the Garden needed his attention, but he felt better having a look at the still regenerating Garden while the young angels used the same time to sneak up on him or watch him, while some even came to talk to him.  
  
Once he was inside the bunker, Sam could hear his angel’s laughter echo through every hallway, and he asked himself what would cause Lucifer to laugh to like this. Opening the door to their bedroom, Sam looked inside only to find Lucifer and Gabriel rolling around on their bed.  
  
Walking into the room and closing the door behind himself, Sam looked at the big screen Gabriel had installed on the wall across from their bed, he turned the whole wall into a screen. Cats… they were watching cat videos. A century had passed since Sam became Protector of the Realm, but there was one thing humanity would never leave behind as far he could tell; cat videos and even archangels loved them. Sam watched a fat white fluffy cat having a sneezing fit. Every time the cat sneezed, it would take half a step backward until she fell off the bed. The way Lucifer and Gabriel were leaning closer to the screen the closer the cat came to the edge of the bed, Sam would bet that they weren’t watching the video for the first time.  
  
The second the cat fell off the bed, again, Lucifer and Gabriel threw themselves on the mattress, rolled around and laughed like there was no tomorrow. Chuckling himself, Sam tossed himself onto the bed right between his laughing archangels. While Lucifer and Gabriel were still laughing their feathers off, Sam made himself comfortable.  
  
Gabriel ended up with his head in Sam’s lap while he laughed at the sneezing cat as the video seemed to run on constant repeat. Lucifer, meanwhile, was hiding his face against Sam’s throat and his cold breath shouldn’t be as arousing to Sam as it was. Thanks to Lucifer, he learned to enjoy the cold, as his archangel ran even colder than Sam.  
  
Sam held both archangels, but he was surprised when a snap sounded through the room, and suddenly, the room was covered in darkness. Gabriel had switched off the giant screen-wall.  
  
Hands, one cold and one warm, were placed on Sam’s chest. “So powerful…” Lucifer’s breath was still cold against Sam’s throat, and his breath hitched when Lucifer’s cold hand wandered down Sam’s chest while Gabriel’s warm one wandered up. “And so strong…”  
  
Sam was held in place by his two archangels, and his senses were flooded with diverse kinds of sensations as hands warm and cold ghosted over his skin while their equally warm and cold breaths hit his skin. “And all ours…”  
  
Before Sam could say anything, Gabriel pressed his lips to Sam’s. Sam moaned, and Gabriel swallowed the sound only to push his talented tongue into Sam’s mouth. Not knowing what to do with his hands, Sam grabbed Gabriel by the neck while his other hand rested on Lucifer’s back. As Gabriel tried to steal Sam’s breath from him, Sam felt Lucifer’s cold hands work on the zipper of his jeans.  
  
Sam knew what was coming, but he tightened his grip around Gabriel’s neck when he felt the cold of Lucifer’s mouth around his cock. Without meaning to, Sam tightened the grip he had on Gabriel’s neck and Lucifer’s back and both his archangels groaned.  
  
The smell of honey and thyme clashed against frost covered berries as the wings of archangels were brought into their plane of existence. While Sam could hear the rustle of feathers, he couldn’t see them in the absolute darkness of their room.  
  
With a movement that felt like a lifetime to Sam, Lucifer moved away from under his hand, but his cold mouth never left his cock. Sam felt Lucifer straddle his legs, and while Lucifer moved around, he wrapped his hand around the part of Sam’s cock he couldn’t swallow.  
  
Gabriel broke the kiss and Sam tried to follow his lips, but the smaller archangel pressed him onto the covers. Over the rustle of Gabriel’s feathers and the slurping of Lucifer, Sam felt Gabriel reposition as well. Gabriel’s weight landed on Sam’s middle as the archangel straddled him and the Protector could imagine the heat in Gabriel’s eyes as he felt small hands on his chest.  
  
“All ours to enjoy…” Gabriel’s voice was low and had a dark edge, almost like a rumble, and suddenly Sam was able to see in the darkness. Gabriel’s feathers started to glow like amber held against the sun. It allowed Sam to see, but it was still too dim to make out more than the outlines of Gabriel’s golden feathers.  
  
A soft sound close to Sam’s ear, followed by the feeling of skin on skin, told Sam that Gabriel had snapped their clothes away.  
  
Another light, white and cold, joined Gabriel’s golden glow but the second light allowed Sam to see Gabriel’s face. Behind Gabriel, Sam could see Lucifer’s stretched out wings glow in a stark light.  
  
Sam lay utterly still as Gabriel leaned down on top of him and started to rub his hard cock against Sam’s belly. A wet line of precum left behind. Sam was unable to look away from Gabriel’s eyes of amber and darkest green, when Gabriel looked him right in the eyes.  
  
“We were waiting for you, our beloved Protector. We crave the taste of you.” The smile on the archangel’s face was almost sinister with the emerald colored glow of. Right at those words, Lucifer sucked Sam’s cock down hard and closed his cold hands around his balls. Hissing, Sam tried to sit up, but Gabriel pressed him back down.  
  
“You are not going anywhere right now, Sam.” Gabriel’s voice had turned into something liquid that wrapped itself around him like a blanket made of velvet. Sam could still feel Gabriel rub himself against his skin, but sturdy fingers closed around Sam’s nipple only to twist the small nub. Gasping, Sam pushed against Gabriel’s hold on him involuntarily, but he pushed his cock deeper into the cold cavern of Lucifer’s mouth at the same time. Sometimes Sam forgot that he was stronger than his archangels.  
  
Lucifer made a choking sound but didn’t pull back while Gabriel slammed his hand down on his handprint over Sam’s ribs. “I told you… you are not going anywhere, Sam.”  
  
Sam keened at the power of Gabriel’s grace surging through him when the archangel slammed his hand down on the handprint and used his other hand to pinch Sam’s nipple again. “So strong and ours to pleasure and enjoy.”  
  
Sam was about to answer, but Gabriel captured his lower lip and bit down hard enough to break the sensitive skin. Moaning at the spark of pain and the taste of copper on his tongue, Sam grabbed Gabriel by the shoulders and pulled him deeper into a kiss that was more force and teeth than anything else.  
  
The smell of blood and arousal was so heavy in the air between them that Sam had trouble breathing through the heavy scent clouding his senses. When Gabriel bit down again on his lip only to lick the blood off his skin, the pain allowed Sam to focus on his archangel again.  
  
Gabriel was still sitting on top of Sam, but now he had his hands resting on the pecs of Sam’s chest with his wings stretched wide, and his head thrown back. Sam could feel Gabriel’s hunger for more through their connection, but just as Sam was about to grasp for Gabriel, he felt Lucifer pull back from his cock.  
  
Scowling at the loss, Sam was about to reach behind Gabriel to push Lucifer back down when he saw a smirking Lucifer look down at him from behind Gabriel. “Don’t worry, Sam. You will enjoy what we have planned for you.”  
  
Sam watched Lucifer pull Gabriel back, and the smaller archangel lifted himself. Transfixed by their overlapping wings and their combined hunger, Sam could only stare. With Lucifer’s help, Gabriel lowered himself down Sam’s cock with a completely blissed out expression on his face while naked hunger played over Lucifer’s eyes.  
  
To keep himself from forcing Gabriel down faster than the archangel wanted, Sam buried his hands in the covers around him, and his claws ripped the fabric apart. Snarling as the tight heat of Gabriel surrounded his cock more and more, Sam wanted nothing more than to push Gabriel down, hold him in position and start fucking him senseless; but something in the words Lucifer had used moments ago held Sam back.  
  
Lucifer was helping Gabriel lower himself down on Sam’s cock while he pressed his still glowing wings against Gabriel’s golden ones. When Gabriel bottomed out, finally, Sam felt like he was bursting apart, and the urge to move was so strong it was almost maddening.  
  
Sam watched as Lucifer pushed Gabriel forward. “Let him enjoy himself but don’t make him cum yet, little brother.” With still-glowing eyes that were fixated on Sam, Gabriel nodded and started to push himself up and down.  
  
Biting down on his lip, Sam released the shreds of covers around him from his hands and placed them on Gabriel’s thighs while the archangel moved up and down in a slow rhythm. He didn’t use his hands to grip down onto smooth and warm skin for he feared his claws would hurt Gabriel. Through careful touch of skin on skin, Sam could feel Gabriel move, and relished every small gasp from Gabriel, when he managed to hit his prostate, which made Sam growl and highlighted his arousal. Wings of lustrous gold rested on the bed on both sides of them as Gabriel couldn’t hold them up any longer the more his pleasure grew.  
  
Behind Gabriel, Sam could still see Lucifer stare down at Gabriel and the place where Sam was splitting the smaller archangel open with every push down . Lucifer’s wings were held up high and spread wide. Their light flickered over everything in the room with every small twitch, and it looked like water was dancing through the room.  
  
Suddenly, Lucifer’s mask of desire turned into something full of mischief as he leaned closer to press his naked chest against Gabriel’s back and with one strong arm around the smaller archangel, Lucifer forced his brother to hold in place.  
  
Sam was about to growl at Lucifer when he suddenly felt a cold finger push into Gabriel’s tight heat right next to Sam’s cock breaching the smaller archangel.  
  
Moaning at the sudden cold and tightness, Sam couldn’t restrain himself in time, and his claws pricked Gabriel’s skin. The smell of his blood enlaced with grace-filled the air between them. Gabriel’s let loose a high pitched keen when Lucifer pushed a second finger in and started to stretch his brother’s already full hole even more.  
  
“You will be so tight around our cocks, little brother. Unable to move and forced to let Sammy and me fuck you, make you all wet and slippery…” The temperature dropped while Lucifer spoke, and Sam saw goosebumps rise on Gabriel’s skin. Gabriel looked up at his brother and offered Sam a perfect view of the muscular column of his throat.  
  
Pulling Gabriel away from Lucifer, Sam dragged Gabriel down and pressed his lips to his neck until he could feel the archangel’s racing pulse underneath the warm skin. Sam licked the warm and sweaty area before he bit down, Gabriel’s gasp of pain was almost silent next to his ear. If it was because of Sam’s teeth pricking his skin or Lucifer’s talented fingers stretching him even more, Sam couldn’t tell.  
  
Long and elegant fingers closed around Gabriel’s neck and pressed him harder against Sam. Looking over Gabriel’s shoulder while he licked the blood off Gabriel’s neck, Sam met Lucifer’s eyes as the older archangel positioned himself behind his brother.  
  
Lucifer’s face was a mask of pleasure as he closed his other hand around his cock and guided himself into Gabriel’s slick and stretched hole.  
  
Growling against the refreshing feeling of Lucifer’s flesh against his own and the increasing tightness, Sam bit down hard, Gabriel moaned and struggled between his mates. He pulled back from Sam’s sharp teeth only to push harder against Lucifer who was still thrusting his cock slowly into his hole next to Sam’s cock.  
  
Time slowed down for Sam as he felt Lucifer pushing himself into Gabriel. He didn’t dare to move for he feared he would come the second he so much as twitched. Searching for Lucifer’s eyes, Sam tried to tell Lucifer that he was entrapped in his pleasure, that he couldn’t do anything. Every word Sam wanted to speak died on his tongue when Lucifer finally bottomed out only to start with a sloppy rhythm that punched the breath out of Gabriel’s lungs. 

  
The smaller archangel looked down at Sam with big eyes as he was held still between them. His fingers clenched and unclenched with every thrust from Lucifer’s where they rested on Sam’s chest. Precum dripped from Gabriel’s cock down onto Sam’s skin. Pleading, Gabriel stared at Sam with eyes consumed by the black of his pupil while Sam had to force his orgasm back as Lucifer sped up his thrusts and grunted every time he pushed back in into the tightness of Gabriel’s hole.  
  
Sam could feel Lucifer’s cock jerk against his own as Lucifer changed the angle while leaning over Gabriel. In the dim light of their wings, Sam could see that Lucifer had started to rub his face like an oversized cat against Gabriel’s feathers. Gabriel whined and closed his hands around Sam’s upper arms with a punishing grip.  
  
Panting against the pleasure clouding his mind, Sam closed his hand around Gabriel’s cock and started to jerk him off in sync with Lucifer’s shallow thrusts. Whiskey colored eyes rolled back, and no sound left Gabriel’s gaping mouth when Lucifer pulled his brother down into his last push.  
  
A chilly wind, caused by Lucifer’s sudden stretch of his wings, made Sam shiver as he felt Lucifer reach his orgasm. Moaning at the coldness of Lucifer’s release flooding Gabriel’s insides around Sam, Sam was unable to keep himself still and allowed himself a few chaotic thrusts when Lucifer stilled who was too caught up in his pleasure to keep going.  
  
Gabriel buried his nails into Sam’s skin when he started to thrust, but Sam only grunted. His grunts turned into a snarl as Lucifer pulled out, and his cool release ran down Sam’s shaft.  
  
Rolling around with his cock still buried in Gabriel’s messy hole, Sam made sure that he wasn’t crushing Gabriel’s wings before he hooked his mate’s legs over his shoulders. Sam lifted Gabriel to stash a pillow under his hips before he started to thrust.  
  
Gabriel was all loose, sloppy and fucked open around Sam when he fucked hard into his pliant mate under him. Lucifer’s cold release offered a strange but pleasant contrast whenever Sam pushed back into Gabriel’s heat.  
  
Next to Sam, Lucifer moved only to plaster himself against Sam’s side, forcing Sam’s head around with an iron grip on his antlers to press his cold lips to Sam’s.  
  
Once again trapped between the heat of Gabriel and the cold of Lucifer, Sam let go. Moaning, Sam allowed Lucifer to push his cold tongue into his mouth as he allowed his orgasm to roll over him and he added his spurting orgasm to the mess Lucifer had already left behind inside his brother.  
  
Lucifer chuckled as Sam found his release and Gabriel made a strangled sound underneath him.  



	5. Equilibrium

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One chapter left...

Millennia later, Sam sat together with Dean and their angels on a remote island and looked up at the sky. It should happen any minute now. Amused, Sam watched Ramiel dash through the warm, clear water at the beach of their island. The young angel was chasing a considerable leguaan that had became nature to this island a long time ago. Water splashed everywhere while seagulls screamed and flew over their heads.   
  
_Soon._  
  
Next, to Sam, Dean chuckled and stretched. “Good thing the little pigeon stayed with us and not with the featherheads upstairs. They still give me the creeps, especially the last ones who returned to Heaven. They look at us as if we are the answer to every question they have. Creepy, dude.” Snorting, Lucifer stopped watching the sand froze in unusual ways and looked over at Dean. “To them, you are. They have completely forgotten who they used to be, and they were taught to think for themselves. _Someone_ made sure that they knew what you two did in the past.”  
  
With an amused smile on this face, Lucifer looked over at Castiel who was resting in the sand, his wings halfway buried in it. Castiel shrugged his shoulders only to get scolded by Gabriel who made it his mission to draw every one of Castiel’s buried feathers in the sand. “Someone had to tell them something, and they are a generation of angels who have no own memories of what happened before you fell, Lucifer. It’s a change that was needed. I only told them the story and asked the questions they came up with on their own. No one will be able to turn them into mindless followers now.”  
  
“And while you told them your little bedtime story, you made sure to hammer it into their heads that turning onto the Winchesters would be bad for their general health. You used too many flowers for your history lessons, Cassie.”   
  
Frowning, Castiel shook the wing Gabriel was drawing on and smiled at Gabriel’s annoyed face. “You had your chance to tell them the story yourself, Gabriel. And chose not to do it, and I told them what happened. Means, bite me, Gabriel.”  
  
Sam laughed at the playful exchange between the angels. It was an old thing, but Sam couldn’t let go of his thoughts that both were right. As much Castiel had told them, he explained the young angels his opinion of the past, and while the young angels had taken a piece from Castiel’s story and added their siblings were told to their own. Gabriel had chosen to stay out of it. The archangels, in general, stayed far away from Heaven’s politics these days and when the last of the young angels had heard the old story of Heaven and Hell; the fall of the Lightbringer, the battle for the end of the world, and how Sam and Dean had won in the long term. Even Castiel made it clear that he had no wishes to deal with Heaven any longer, but he would always have an open ear for them. The angels had asked Ramiel to return home, return to Heaven, but the little Angel of Hope had only shaken her head.   
  
“Home is where I am. It’s with Sam, Dean, and Castiel, Lucifer and Gabriel. I won’t return to Heaven.”   
  
A few of the angels had looked appealing, especially those who still remembered Heaven from earlier times, but the younger ones, those with almost no memories of the time before they fell, were happy for Ramiel and asked if they could visit their older sister once in a while. Castiel had told the young angels that it was only because of Ramiel that they were still alive and had a chance to redeem themselves to become angels once more. To them, Ramiel deserved the same respect as the archangels, if not more so.   
  
Sam had watched Lucifer and Gabriel snicker and giggle about Ramiel’s confused face whenever the younglings appeared and watched her like little children looked at their elders and listened to their tales. It’s not like they feared the archangels, but to the young angels, the archangels were something completely different. They were something otherworldly to them, and since neither Lucifer nor Gabriel had any wish to deal with Heaven, both stayed away from their siblings. The time of the archangels ruling Heaven was over.   
  
“It’s starting! Now, everyone, shut up!”   
  
Gabriel jumped up, snapped, and landed in the sand next to Sam with sunglasses on his nose, and popcorn and a soda in his hands.   
  
There, in the distance, a vessel lifted off a platform in the ocean. It was a sleek black ship, massive and loud as it started. The lean bow was turned into the sky by the vessel’s pilot, and the engines roared when it flew off, aiming for the stars and the black void between them.   
  


Silence fell once again of their island, and the ship turned into a small spark in the sky until they couldn’t see the lights of their engines anymore. It hadn’t been spectacular even; they had watched the beginnings of hundreds of vessels, aiming for the stars and carrying humans to new worlds but this one had been exceptional.   
  
This one, this craft, had been the last of its line. Humanity had left Earth behind after they had discovered so many secrets on the worlds that had seen humanity learn to crawl, to walk, to run until they finally learned to fly.   
  
For centuries, humans had left the Earth to search the universe for new places, but they always left a few of them behind to guard a world that didn’t need protecting. This world was always and would ever be protected. With time, humanity had forgotten about the angels, the archangels, the protectors. Humanity had learned to stand on their own two feet, to be responsible for themselves and with the invisible help of Heaven and the young angels, they learned to soar.   
  
When the first of them left and to never return the world that had taught them so much, Sam had felt a strange pull on his powers. Their world was saying goodbye to its children for they were the first ones to leave.   
  
Over time, more and more left, a few revisited until their ancestors returned to the stars only to leave the Earth forever. More left until only a small number of humans were remaining back on Earth.   
  
Sam and Dean guarded them, helped them together with the angels walking among humans, but the time was near when humanity would leave forever. That moment had risen, and now silence fell over the Earth. Humanity had left its origin to find unfamiliar places, with new protectors to guard them, and with humanity gone, the angels followed them.   
  
Heaven wasn’t a place located on Earth but in this universe, and so the angels could follow the humans wherever they went. To guard them, to nourish their small colonies on unknown worlds to help them flourish there too. They needed to learn to walk before they could fly; and with traveling humanity, the angels had a lot to do. They finally did what angels were always intended to do; guide and teach humankind.   
  
Sam got up and walked down to the shore. The water was warm when it washed over his naked feet, and the sand was soft like velvet. Dean stepped up and stood next to him.   
  
They could feel the change in their world. With humanity gone, their world came into the next stage of its existence, the next part of its life, the next part of its circle.   
  
Now, the Earth belonged only to the Protectors of the Realm and, to an extent, their angels.   
  
Sam felt the soft breeze coming over the ocean, and with it, it carried the scents of this world who had just lost one of its children. He could feel their world cry over the loss, but he could also feel the joy of a proud parent watching their child walking alone for the first time.   
  
Sam let himself fall into the fabric of the world, and Dean followed him. They left their angels behind as they roamed through the structure of their society, now devote of any human souls. Only the cities humanity had built remained, but even those started to vanish as the protectors allowed nature to reclaim its territory.   
  
Within a day, everything man-made disappeared, the Earth and its nature returned to a natural balance without humanity disturbing it. With every trace of humanity gone, the world returned to something it was a long, long time ago, when God created it.   
  
A perfect and beautiful place for its creatures.   



	6. Every circle ends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are...finally. It over 1 1/2 years to reach this point but we made it, the end. 
> 
> Thank you, all of you, who stayed with me for this journey. We've come far to stand now here and as painful and sad as it is to let them go, the Protectors will never leave us for real. They will always be by our side. 
> 
> Enjoy this last ride, enjoy the wind on your faces, the sun on your skin and the water between your toes. 
> 
> Far well and save travel, we will meet again on the other side.

They started noticing something was off the first time when Ramiel began to fall asleep where she stood or sat. One moment the little angel would be hovering over one of her beloved books only to fall asleep mid-sentence and not wake up for hours. When she woke up again, she would be disoriented and groggy. It got so bad that she fell asleep while talking.   
  
Just like now as Sam was talking to her, and he suddenly saw Ramiel’s eyes flutter shut. He caught her right on time before she would have fallen.   
  
Carefully, Sam carried her into the living room and laid her down on the couch and draped a blanket over her sleeping form. Sighing heavily, Sam sat down on the small table in front of the sofa and took Ramiel’s little hand into his own. He could feel Ramiel’s grace just like he could feel the Spark of the Garden within her, but both seemed dull and barely reacted to Sam’s presence; where usually the Spark would lighten up at the presence of the Protector.   
  
With utter care, Sam placed Ramie’s hand on top of the blanket and left the living room to find his archangels.   
  
He found Lucifer first in their bedroom. The archangel had piled up their pillows until he had a backrest and something to rest his wings on as well should he wish so. The archangel was watching one of Dean’s movies on the video wall Gabriel had installed a long time ago, but the moment Sam walked in, Lucifer made the movie pause with a snap of his fingers.  
  
“She fall asleep again?”   
  
Nodding, Sam joined Lucifer on their bed and sat across his archangel. “I have no idea what’s causing it. It’s just like the other times, but now she fell asleep while talking to me. I tried to reach her grace and the Spark, but both aren’t reacting to me. It’s like she’s hibernating, but I don’t think angels do that.”   
  
Lucifer edged closer to Sam and placed his cold hand around Sam’s jaw. “No, angels don’t hibernate, and we don’t have to sleep. Not even little angels like Ramiel. We decide to sleep, but that’s what you do, too. You don’t have to sleep either, Sam.”   
  
Nodding, Sam pressed his face against Lucifer’s cold hand. He had no idea how to help Ramiel because he had no idea what was causing this. There was nothing left on Earth that could affect an angel like this.   
  
Suddenly there was a knock on their door and Sam could see on Lucifer’s face that he didn’t want to be interrupted, but with Ramiel sleeping it could only be Dean or Castiel who would knock on their door. Sighing again, Sam could feel his brother behind the door. “Come in, Dean, and you don’t have to cover your eyes.” Across from him, Lucifer chuckled and pushed an unruly strand of Sam’s hair out of his face.   
  
The door was pushed open, and Dean walked in with his hand over his eyes. “You sure it’s safe to look?” Snorting, Sam threw a pillow at his brother and hit Dean right in the face. “Hey!” Dean yelped as the pillow hit him in the face only to pull his hand away and catch it. Frowning, Dean lifted the pillow which had the shape of a smiling corgi sitting on his butt and looking over his shoulder. No need to explain the cushion belonged to Gabriel, and it had been a gift from Ramiel when humanity was still around.   
  
“We’re still wearing our pants, Dean. What do you want?” Dean frowned at the smiling corgi and threw the pillow back at Sam who tried to duck, but the pillow almost found its end in his antlers if not for Lucifer snapping and placing it back on the bed. “It’s about Cas… I think whatever is forcing Ramiel to sleep might have him, too.”  
  
Turning around, Sam saw the worry in his brother’s eyes and his climbed higher. “Did he fell asleep while talking, too? That’s what happened with Ramiel a few minutes ago.” Dean shook his head. “No, he’s outside and taking care of his bees. I was coming back from a run with the wolves when I saw him nod off, sitting under a tree. I called for him, and he startled awake. He didn’t seem to notice that he was about to fall asleep.”   
  
Feeling his brother’s pain and worry, Sam got up, and Lucifer followed him. Looking at the archangel, Lucifer only shrugged his broad shoulders. “Just curious.” Shaking his head, Sam followed Dean outside, and Lucifer followed them like a shadow.   
  
Together, they found Castiel just like Dean had described it. The seraph was sitting under a tree in the sun; long legs stretched out in front of him, hands buried in the pockets of his trench coat and head resting against the trunk of the tree. Someone might think that he was only enjoying the sun, but Sam could see the slow rise and fall of the seraph’s chest and new that he was, indeed, asleep.   
  
Sitting down next the sleeping seraph, Sam took Castiel’s hand in his own and tried to reach for the seraph’s grace.   
  
Just like earlier with Ramiel, Castiel’s grace seemed to be resting, but when Sam let his powers touch it, the seraph woke.   
  
With a rustle of wings, Castiel vanished from in front of Sam only to appear in a battle-ready position on the other side of the clearing with a field of flowers between them. He looked startled and was blinking against the bright sunlight but didn’t resist when Dean crossed the clearing and pulled him into a tight hug.   
  
“What happened?” Castiel’s voice was curbed with the way Dean smothered the seraph against his chest. “You were about to fall asleep when I walked by earlier, and I told Sam about it. You came back and had fallen asleep. He woke you up.”   
  
Before anyone could say something or add to what Dean had said, a loud buzzing and humming sounded over the clearing. Bees, insects, butterflies all of them appeared from the forest and flew around the protectors and their angels. The tiny creatures flew around everyone, but suddenly, they started to gather in the middle of the clearing.   
  
They began building something until they all flew in a perfect formation. All the tiny creatures with the fast beating wings flew in a flawless circle. Nothing was out of place, and Sam was sure that his drawings of a ring never were this ideal as the insects flew their formation.   
  
As suddenly as the insects appeared just as suddenly, they stopped their rotating circle, and now they built a perfectly shaped loop in the middle of the clearing. The air vibrated with the many thousand wings, and it was almost like static, but still, no insect left its place in the circle.   
  
A breeze blew softly over the clear, and the insects got carried away by it.   
  
The natural sounds of the forest returned, but everyone stared at the space between the trees where the swarm had vanished.   
  
A cold shiver ran down Sam’s back as a thought crossed his mind.   
  
…  
  
Together, they walked back into the bunker only to find Gabriel and Ramiel sitting in the kitchen. Gabriel watched Ramiel like a hawk while the little angel looked like a grumpy female version of Dean after he woke up to find no coffee in the kitchen. Good thing that they had an archangel around to snap everything into existence.   
  
A steaming mug stood in front of Ramiel who held the cup between her hands like a sacrifice, but she looked up with a disgruntled face when she heard them all enter. The second she spotted Sam, Ramiel let go of her mug and threw herself against him in a bearhug. Startled, Sam closed his strong arms around Ramiel’s tiny form, and he was once again surprised how small she felt compared to his archangels. Even Gabriel felt more prominent than her.   
  
“Hiya, Sam.” Ramiel was seeking warmth against the naked skin of his chest, and Sam could feel Gaia’s mark on his chest react to the closeness of the little angel. The only problem he didn’t understand why the mark was responding at all. “Ehm, hiya yourself, Ramiel. You about to fall asleep on me again?”   
  
Looking around them, Sam saw that everyone was staring at them like they were waiting for an answer to what was happening in their midst. “No, not now. The bells woke me up.” Alarmed, Sam searched his brother’s gaze before he pulled back to look at Ramiel’s face. “You said the bells woke you up. Which bells did you hear, Ramiel?” Ramiel blinked slowly and smiled like she was drunk. “Bells, loud but clear and beautiful. I could hear Cas, too, but he was gone before I could talk to him.”  
  
So, wherever the angels went when they fell asleep, they seemed to be connected, Sam thought. Looking over at Castiel, Sam only saw a deep frown playing over the seraph’s face before he answered Sam’s silent question with a shake of his head. So, Cas couldn’t remember Ramiel from his nap.  
  
“And the bells, Ramiel? What about the bells you heard?” Ramiel made a sound that reminded Sam of a cat before she pulled him into a new hug. “Don’t know. They were loud and clear, pretty, like music.” When Ramiel pressed her face against his naked skin again, Sam felt as if he could hear an echo of bells in the back of his mind. It only strengthened his earlier thoughts after the insects had shown them the circle.  
  
“Okay, thank you, Ramiel. You still tired?” The little angel nodded and reminded Sam of a small child. “Yeah, but only a bit. I’ll go to the library to finish something.” She stretched herself until he stood on her toes, pressed a kiss to Sam’s check only to pull back and leave the kitchen.   
  
Sam watched the little angel leave, but his face hardened when he looked at the others in the room. “Sam?” Gabriel’s face changed into something Sam hadn’t seen in ages. A crumb of Gabriel’s trickster nature was bleeding through. “I think I know what’s going on, but I need to talk to Gaia to confirm it.”   
  
Lucifer made a snarling noise while Dean growled. “Gaia has been sleeping since we woke up. We haven’t seen or heard from her in ages. Why do you think you can talk to her?” Hazel-colored wolf-like eyes met the green and wolf-like eyes of his brother. “Ramiel said she heard bells. Do you know of anyone else besides Gaia who appears with the sound of bells? I think she is either awake or about to wake up. Either way, I need to talk to her.”

****  
…  
  
  
After some more heated words between them, because Sam had to be nuts to go looking for Gaia on his own, Sam delivered the one point that made everyone shut up. “None of you can go as deep as I can into the fabric of this world, not even you, Dean. Whenever Gaia decided to speak to one of us, she always chose to speak to me. Either I will be able to find and talk to her about what’s going on, or I won’t find her at all. I must go and see. If I find her, we will know what’s waiting for us, and if not, we try to find out on our own, like we’re used to.”   
  
No one was able to say something against it, and so Sam left the bunker and walked through the forest until he reached his clearing. The moment he stepped into his clearing, the sounds of the forest around him vanished, and only the soft murmur of the spring within the area was audible.   
  
Sitting down in front of the small pond, Sam crossed his legs under himself and closed his eyes. He tried to let go of everything and to concentrate only the world around him. The softness of the moss, the whispering of the wind in the trees, the murmur of the water. He opened himself and his mind to the world he had been protecting for so long.   
  
Sam stretched his arm out and held his hand over the water. He focused his powers on the mark on his chest, he tried to gather his full might into his call to Gaia. When he was sure he couldn’t go any farther, Sam lowered his hand until his fingertips touched the water before he spoke one word. _“Gaia.”  
  
_Sam felt like he was falling. Everything was tumbling around him, falling around him and collapsing into itself. It almost felt like his first fall so long time ago, when he made Lucifer fall for a second time only to pull Michael with him into the cage. Gritting his teeth against the still painful memory, Sam tried to slow down his descent, but before he managed to get back in control, he felt like he was slowing down until he was surrounded by nothing but blackness covered with stars. He had no idea where he was, but he felt no danger.   
  
The stars started to move around him as if they were dancing and when he tried to catch one of them, the light flittered away with bell-like laughter. He had found who he was looking for. “Gaia?” He wasn’t sure if he still had a physical body on this plane of existence, but his voice sounded normal. _“Sam…”_ A warm feeling flooded Sam’s consciousness when he heard the bells around him. _“I wasn’t expecting you, my Protector. What brings you’re here?”_ Sam tried to turn around and follow the glittering stars, but they kept moving all around him. “Are you awake, Gaia, or am I in your dream?” The sound Sam heard from Gaia sounded almost like a question without words. _“I’m neither asleep nor awake yet. I’m in a state between the two, but I’m waking up now.”_ More stars started to gather around Sam, and for a moment, Sam thought the stars had taken the form of a snake. “Is you waking up changing something? Things are happening, and Ramiel said she heard you when she was asleep, but your bells woke her up. Loud bells in the distance.”   
  
The stars seemed to be exploding around him, and Sam covered his eyes with his arm to protect them against the sudden light. _“No, I’m waking up because it is time, it is almost over now, and your little angel is merely the first to feel it. A change is coming.”_ Shivering at these words, Sam focused on the only remaining star on this field of blackness. “What change? What is coming for us? Can we fight it?”   
  
Sam felt like he heard Gaia sigh, and the light of the star in front of him started to rotate slowly. _“The change, the last change is coming, and it cannot be stopped. It will happen, and it will happen soon. It’s the reason I’m waking up. I will start anew when the change is complete.”  
  
_It didn’t matter that Sam was surrounded by darkness, but he closed his eyes when he heard Gaia’s words. He had been right. “Are we at the end Gaia? Is our circle about to end?” The rotating star flew closer to Sam, but he didn’t dare to touch it. “Every circle needs to end, Sam. It’s the way of things. Something needs to end for something new to rise.” Yes, Sam had been right. “You say this circle is about to end… what will happen to us? To Dean and myself, our angels. What will happen to them?” Again, the sound of bells surrounded Sam, but this time he found it more annoying than anything else.   
  
_“The Protectors are part of this circle, and so are those that bind themselves to them. This circle is about to reach its end, it’s almost here, and when the loop ends, this world will vanish until it’s time to start anew.”_   
  
Growling, Sam focused on the rotating star in front of him. “That doesn’t answer my question on what is going to happen with us. When the circle ends, and our world vanishes, are we going to die? What will happen when we leave this world and follow the path humanity took when they left this world behind?”   
  
The star flew closer to Sam’s face, but Sam didn’t even try to lower the bitchface he knew was playing over his features. _“The Protectors can leave, just like the light ones, but you all are part of the circle. When the circle ends, you will follow it into the void. You will sleep, rest, gather your strength until it’s time to wake up again and take over your duties in guarding this world once more.”_ As much as Sam found all of this irritating, he started to understand. “Is that the reason Ramiel falls asleep so often? Cas is showing the same problem. Will they be safe when the circle ends?”  
  
The star started to grow, and it only stopped when a huge stag made of stars appeared in front of Sam. The animal lowered its head, and Sam saw that its antlers seemed to be endless in the blackness of this place. _“You all will sleep, together, as you will dream together. This world would be ashes without you a long time ago. You bound the light-ones to yourself and to this world. They will sleep with you and protect the new circle as they did with the one about to end. The little angel who carries the Spark is the weakest of you. She will be the first to fall asleep and won’t wake again until the new circle starts. As she will be the first, you will be the last, Protector mine.”_  
  
Sam had no idea what he should say after what he just had heard. He now remembered what Gaia had told them such a long time ago. That they would be the Protectors, Guardian and Nourisher until the circle ends. Well, now the ring was about to finish, and Ramiel, Castiel, Lucifer, and Gabriel would join them in whatever was waiting for them.   
  
“We are bound to you, but not the angels. Why can’t they return to Heaven while we sleep?”   
  
The stag shook its head, and shooting stars fell from its antlers. _“I have no hold on the light ones, and I can’t call on them. You and the Nourisher pulled them into the circle when they accepted your courting and the gifts you gave them. They will remain as they are now when the circle ends and starts anew. The Divided One, the Bright One, the Feral One, and the Guardian of the Spark. They all choose to stand with you. Should they return to the place of light, they would wither and vanish._

_Their place is within the circle now, not with the light. They have done their duty in helping you protect the circle. Now the time has come for you, all of you, the rest. The circle ends when I’m fully awake and you, as the last one, has fallen asleep. This world will not be the same when you wake up, but for the place you created for yourself. Together with the Protectors and their lights, the world you created will rest with you. It is yours, and it will be yours when you wake to guard and protect. You will rise together with the new circle for you and your brother are, and will ever be, the Protector of the Realm and Nourisher of the Eternal Circle.”_  
  
…  
  
Sam woke up from his dream when something touched his arm. Looking down, he spotted a fox cub trying to jump over his arm. Smiling, he picked the fox up and left the clearing. On his way back to the bunker, Sam spotted the cub’s mother and lowered the little fox again on the ground. Sam followed the little fox with his eyes. Now that he knew what was about to come, he could feel it. Gaia was right; their circle had reached its end.  
  
Taking his time walking back to the bunker, Sam tried to find the right words for when he reached home. He stopped in the hallway to look around. So many memories and almost nothing had changed in this place since they made themselves at home here. The circle would end, and this place would fall asleep with them, and they would wake up one day to the same walls, the same things gathered in the bunker, and they would have no idea what would be waiting for them outside.   
  
Sam followed the hallway only to find the kitchen deserted. Following the soft sound of their voices, Sam found them in the library.   
  
He spotted Ramiel sunken on the table. Her head rested on a thick book, and she still had a pen in her hand. Everyone looked up when Sam walked into the room, but he was still at a loss of what he should tell them.   
  
Lucifer walked up to Sam with a piece of paper in his hand. Unsure, the archangel looked at the article in his hand before he handed it over to Sam. “Is the circle about to end, Sam?”   
  
Startled by this quietly spoken question, Sam took the paper Lucifer offered him, and he saw dozens of circles drawn on the paper, but they weren’t finished. The lines never connected, and the rings were left open a bit.   
  
Looking up, Sam met Lucifer’s gaze. “Ramiel did this?” The archangel nodded, and when Sam saw the papers in the hands of the others, he was sure that Ramiel wouldn’t wake again. Sighing, Sam walked over to Ramiel and pushed her hair out of her face. She was deeply asleep with a smile on her face. Sam took the pen from her hand and lifted her out of the chair. He held the sleeping angel in his arms when he looked at his family.   
  
“I spoke to Gaia and… you’re right. The circle is about to end, for all of us.”   
  
Surprised, Gabriel looked up and pointed to the paper in his hand. “The circle is something that came to be _after_ the angels were made. We are not part of it.” But Sam shook his head at Gabriel’s words. “You are wrong, Gabriel. You, Lucifer, Castiel, Ramiel… all of you are part of the circle now. Gaia said because you accepted Dean’s and my courting, because you took our gifts, we pulled you into it. You are free to leave and return to Heaven, but when the loop ends, you won’t survive for long. You are an essential part of it.”  
  
Lucifer laughed at Sam’s word and irritated by the sound; Sam looked over to his archangel. “Like I want to be anywhere where you aren’t, Sam. What will happen when the circle ends?”   
  
Looking down at the sleeping form of Ramiel in his arms, Sam finally found the words he couldn’t earlier. “You are going to sleep. We all are going to sleep. Ramiel will never wake up again in this circle. She was the first of us to fall asleep as I will be the last. The moment I fall asleep, Gaia will wake up fully, this circle ends, and we will wake up again when it begins anew. Our duty here is done.”   
  
The smile Sam saw now on Lucifer’s face was small and so serene, Sam had no words for it.   
  
“I’m glad to hear this. It explains why I’m so damn tired all the time. I want to rest, to sleep, this existence was long enough, and I would never go back to Heaven. Let’s prepare for an end of the world in a less dramatic way than our father wanted it to be.”  
  
Lucifer’s cold grace rolled through the bunker like a soft wave. Everything around them was now covered with frost as an archangel allowed his grace to put everything to rest until it was time to wake up again. The room around them vanished, and they re-appeared in the dome of the observatory.   
  
All of them watched as Gabriel allowed his grace to join Lucifer’s. From this place, they would greet their new world, the new circle and Gabriel prepared them their final rest for these last moments before everything was about to end.   
  
In an unspoken understanding, the trickster archangel prepared their resting place for they would not separate. They stayed together through the millennia, and they would remain together until the final moment. The second Gabriel was done with preparing everything, Castiel collapsed next to Dean who caught the seraph, and even Gabriel stumbled into Lucifer who caught him, but Gabriel was still awake.   
  
Looking over at Dean, Sam laid Ramiel down into the nest Gabriel had created for all of them. His archangel now wore the same serene smile as Lucifer. When Dean placed a sleeping Castiel next to Ramiel, the fluttering sound of unfolding wings echoed through the room. Dean chuckled tiredly and arranged together with Sam, Ramiel’s and Castiel’s wings.   
  
The moment they were done, Lucifer placed Gabriel into the nest as well. The golden-winged archangel had fallen asleep while they had taken care of the younger ones. When Lucifer looked up, Sam and his archangel shared a long last look before Lucifer closed his eyes as well. His mighty wings stretched out over his siblings like a protective blanket.   
  
Sam looked at Dean. He could see the tiredness creeping into his brother’s eyes, but Dean smiled before he pulled Sam into a tight hug. No words were needed anymore. They came to an understanding a long, long time ago, and they would see each other again. On the other side, when the circle started anew, their time would come again to stand side by side with their angels, and they would guard their world.   
  
Dean smiled at Sam for the last time of this circle, before he fell asleep, covered and protected by the wings of their angels.   
  
Sam allowed himself a last look at his sleeping brother, at his sleeping mates, one last look at his family. They were all sleeping now. Smiling a last and tired smile, Sam put himself to rest, pulled the wings of his archangels over himself like a blanket before he fell asleep as well and into a shared dream with his family. Together, they roamed the sky and flew between blazing stars and rotating worlds as they slept. Together, they dreamed one last dream. Together, they rested, slept, dreamed, and around them the circle… ended. ****  
  


**Author's Note:**

> For more of my insanity, find me on tumblr: [Silvaxus](https://silvaxus.tumblr.com/) You want on my taglist on tumblr? No Problem! Write me a message either here on Ao3 with your tumblr tag or write me on tumblr.


End file.
